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Augusta Grammage, Baby Farmer Convicted for “Feloniously Slaying” A Young Child - 1875

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FULL TEXT: At the Old Bailey, a baby farmer, named Augusta Grammage, was lately sentenced to ten years' penal servitude for “feloniously slaying” a young child that had been entrusted to her care. The judge characterised the case as one of the most brutal that had had come before him.

[From “Clippings From The Home Papers,”  The Nelson Evening Mail (New Zealand),  Jan. 21, 1875, p. 4]

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Baby farmers were rarely convicted. This brief news report does not disclose any other possible killings, thus Grammage is not included in the Female Serial Killer list. Yet the case is included in the list of Baby Farmers who were serial killers.

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For more cases of “Baby Farmers,” professional child care providers who murdered children see The Forgotten Serial Killers.

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Martha Cooper, New Zealand Serial Baby-Killer - 1922

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NOTE: Daniel Cooper was an abortion provider.  Together with his wife, he offered an adoption placement service for unwed mothers. This service was a fraud. The couple collected money the from mother and then starved the baby to death. The Coopers were charged with murdering three babies following the discovery of as body of a newborn at Lyall Bay. Daniel Cooper was found guilty of the murders and hanged at the Terrace Gaol on June 16, 1923. Martha Cooper pleaded that she had only taken part in the atrocities because her husband had forced her to, although it was reportedly she who had been the person who had deliberately starved the babies to death. She was acquitted of the charges and left the country soon after.

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FULL TEXT: Wellington. Wednesday. – The Court of Appeal this morning delivered written reasons for the dismissal of the application by Daniel Richard Cooper for ,leave to appeal against his conviction for murder.

The Chief Justice, Sir Robert Stout, in the course of his judgment, said that the main reason given by counsel for Cooper in support of this application was that evidence had been admitted with respect to the finding of other bodies than the one in respect of which Cooper was charged with murder, and that such evidence was not admissible until a prima facie case of murder had been made out. I am of opinion,” continued His Honor, that, even if that be the law, sufficient evidence has been adduced to warrant the Court in admitting the evidence. There was some evidence — first, that a child found buried on the prisoner’s property was the body of the child of Margaret McLeod, and it was this child Cooper was charged with murdering. There was evidence to the effect that the body was that of a child about the age her child was at the time of its disappearance; second, that the child had been born alive, and had lived a few days; third, that the child was of dark complexion; fourth, that the sex was the same; fifth, that the child had been given by McLeod to Mrs. Cooper, who was living with prisoner, and that immediately after McLeod was told by Cooper that the child had been given to persons for its adoption. There was evidence that she had demanded possession of the child, and could not get any definite answer as to whom it had been given by Cooper, nor where it was; and the child could not be found. Further, there was evidence that the child had not been adopted. All these facts were put forward in Court before evidence as to other children was advanced.

I am of opinion,” concluded His Honor, that this case is indistinguishable from the case of Makin against the Attorney-General of New South Wales, and Regina v. Dean, and the Court is bound by the decisions in these cases. In view of these decisions, it is clear that evidence regarding other bodies found in the ground at Newlands belonging to prisoner was relevant evidence, and tended to show he had been guilty of killing babies, the custody of which had been granted to him by their mothers. The jury could rightly infer that from evidence adduced.”

Mr. Justice Hosking, in his judgment, concurred with the Chief Justice, that a prima facie case was made out before the evidence objected to was admitted. Mr. Justice Salmond said the case was indistinguishable from Makin v. the Attorney-General of New South Wales, and the admission of evidence objected to was in accordance with the rule laid down by the Court of Anneal in Regina v. Whitta and Regina v. Smythe: Amplication for leave to appeal was therefore refused..

[“The Murder Trial. - Cooper’s Conviction. Application To Appeal. Reasons. For Refusal.” Syndicated (Telegraph. Press Association), The New Zealand Herald (Auckland, New Zealand), May 31, 1923, p. 9]

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Images taken from a long article, “’Foul Deeds Will Rise’ - Coopers Tried For Murder - The Massacre of the Innocents - Out-Heroding Herod,” New Zealand Truth (Wellington, New Zealand), May 19, 1923, p.. 5]

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For more cases of “Baby Farmers,” professional child care providers who murdered children see The Forgotten Serial Killers.

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Minnie Dean, New Zealand “Baby Farmer” Executed For Killing Babies - 1895

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EXCERPT from Wikipedia: Williamina "Minnie" Dean (2 September 1844 – 12 August 1895) was a New Zealander who was found guilty of infanticide and hanged. She was the only woman to receive the death penalty in New Zealand.

In 1895, Dean was observed boarding a train carrying a young baby and a hatbox, but observed leaving the same train without the baby and only the hatbox. As railway porters later testified, the object was suspiciously heavy. A woman, Jane Hornsby, came forward claiming to have given her granddaughter, Eva, to Dean, and clothes identified as belonging to this child were found at Dean's residence, but Dean could not produce the child herself. A search along the railway line found no sign of the child. Dean was arrested and charged with murder. Her garden was dug up, and three bodies (two of babies, and one of a boy estimated to be three years old) were uncovered. An inquest found that one child (Eva) had died of suffocation and one, later identified as one year-old Dorothy Edith Carter, had died from an overdose of laudanum (used on children to sedate them). The cause of death for the third child was not determined. Dean was charged with their murder.


In her trial, Dean's lawyer Alfred Hanlon argued that all deaths were accidental, and that they had been covered up to prevent adverse publicity of the sort that Dean had previously been subjected to. On 21 June 1895, however, Dean was found guilty of Dorothy Carter's murder, and sentenced to death. Between June and August 1895, Dean wrote her own account of her life. Altogether, she claimed to have cared for twenty eight children. Of these, five were in good health when her establishment was raided, six had died whilst under her care, and one had been reclaimed by her parents. Apart from her two adopted daughters, that left fourteen or so children unaccounted for, according to her own record.

On 12 August, she was hanged by the official executioner Tom Long in Invercargill, at the intersection of Spey and Leven streets, in what is now the Noel Leeming carpark. She is the only woman to have been executed in New Zealand, and as capital punishment in New Zealand has been abolished, it is likely that she will retain that distinction. She is buried in Winton, alongside her husband, who died in a house fire in 1908. Her crimes led to the belated passage of child welfare legislation in New Zealand – the Infant Life Protection Act 1893 and the Infant Protection Act 1896. 

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For more cases of “Baby Farmers,” professional child care providers who murdered children see The Forgotten Serial Killers.

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Diane & Rachel Staudte, Missouri Mom & Daughter Serial Killer Team - 2013

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According to criminal charges filed in June 21, 2013, Diane Staudte (51), of Springfield, Missouri confessed to poisoning three family members with anti-freeze. Yet Mrs. Staudte had good reasons for her homicidal house-cleaning campaign.

The serial poisoner told detective that she chose to terminate the life of her husband Mark because she “hated him.” Her son Shawn deserved to die  because he was “worse than a pest.” Daughter Sarah, who survived the attempt on her life, barely, was deemed not fit to live because she “would not get a job and had student loans that had to be paid.”

At first, this killer mom attempted to cover up daughter Rachel’s role as an accessory. Yet ultimately Rachel (22), was revealed to have planned and executed the crimes in tandem with her malicious mother.

Antifreeze was the poison of choice.

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ANTIFREEZE

Antifreeze seems to becoming a bit of a trend among homicide addicts of the fair gender.

Julia Lynn Turner, of Marietta, Georgia, used antifreeze to murder two partners. In 1995, she killed husband Maurice Glenn Turner, age 31. On January 22, 2001, she killed her boyfriend, Randy Thompson, age 32, father of a child conceived while married to her first victim.

Stacey Castor of Clay, New York, was convicted in 2009 of killing a husband and a brother, and attempting to murder a daughter using antifreeze, and idea she got from watching a TV news report on the turner case. Her husband was sitting beside her watching as she gained her antifreeze inspiration.

She killed second husband David Castor, using antifreeze, in2005. The murderess tried, unsuccessfully, to pin the guilt for the two successful murders on her third targeted victim, daughter Ashley Wallace, who had been very close to her deceased father. But Amy survived the antifreeze and the fake suicide note created by her mother became damning evidence against the poisoner.

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VICTIMS:

Died:
Mark Staudte, 61, Diane’s husband, died April 2012
Shawn Staudte, 26, Diane’s son, died September 2012

Survived:
Sarah Staudte, 24, Diane’s daughter, survived June 2013 poisoning

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Diane Staudte is far from being the first female serial killer who enlist one of their adult children as accomplices in their repeat homicides. The following cases are examples of  murder-coaching moms: Guadalupe Martinez de Bejarano (1892, Mexico), Ivanova Tamarin (1912, Estonia), Rose Veres (USA, 192), Mary Eleanor Smith (1938, USA), Leonarda Cianciulli (1941, Italy), Silvia Meraz  (2012, Mexico).

Among these murderous moms are two cannibals, one sadistic sex offender and two cannibals and a human-sacrifice cult leader on the list.

Synopses of these cases – along with links to full posts – can be found on the post titled Murder-Coaching Moms.

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The Creepiest Female Serial Killers: 20 Cases

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Sure, all 600-plus female serial killers known to The Unknown History of MISANDRY are creepy, but here are 20 cases that seem to involve an especially weird sense of demonic empowerment.

1610 – Elizabeth Báthory– Hungary – sadistic pervert who tortured and murdered huge numbers of young women

1871 – “Dahr-al-Ahmur Serial Killer”– kidnapped, poisoned and cut up 8 children to get even with a “rival in love”

1885 – Rachel Ostrovoskafa– Ukraine – leader of a baby-killing cult

1895 – Gaetana Stomoli– Sicily – murdered 23 children

1897 – Maria Jager– Hungary – poisoner who murdered a huge number of babies and adults for both profit and thrills.

1906 – Mrs. Gustav Holmen– Sweden – a recently rediscovered case involving the suspected of murder of 1,000 babies

1906 – Ida Schnell– Germany – teenage child-care provider who had a special technique for murdering babies

1908 – Jeanne Weber– France – got her kicks from strangling children, including her own

1911 – Clementine Barnabet– USA – axe-murderess who claimed she was a voodoo cult leader

1912 – Louise Lindloff– USA – clairvoyant who serially poisoned her whole family for insurance money and after her arrest claimed their spirits were visiting her to protect her from false charges

1912 – Enriqueta Martí– Spain – occult cannibal pedophile child-trafficker

1925 – Dinorah Galou– France – suspecting of being a serial killer of children, she was most certainly a child trafficker, involved in renting out babies who were victims of a bizarre torture technique used by street-beggars

1925 – Vera Renczi– Romania – collected the corpses of her paramours

1933 – Viktoria Rieger– Hungary – passed as a man and hated the male sex

1941 – Leonarda Cianciulli– Italy – cooked her victims, all female

1950 – Georgia Tann– USA – pedophile pervert who kidnapped and sold babies, murdering an enormous number (unsalebable merchandise)

1950 – Miriam Soulakiotis– Greece – cult leader, pervert who tortured young women before murdering them

1964 – Delfina, Maria, Carmen & Maria Luisa de Jesús González– Mexico – cult prostitution ring

1980 – Charlene Gallego– USA – pervert, raped and murdered teenage girls

1993 – Karla Homolka– Canada – pervert, raped and murdered young women, including her own sister

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It isn't easy to limit this list to 20. Over time we will add other cases which are so creepy that it would be unreasonable to leave them off the list. 

1871 – Agnes Norman– England – Arrested at age 15: Two or three children, a dog, two cats, six or eight birds, and some gold fish, had all fallen victims to her unnatural propensity for destruction before her crime was discovered. One little boy, aged eleven years, testified that one night he awoke by feeling something hurting him, and upon looking up found this delectable young woman, who lived as a servant in the same house, stooping over him with one hand on his mouth, and the other tightly grasping his throat.

1890 – Marianne Skoublinska– Poland – A professional baby-murderer who charged to get rid of unwanted children who fed scores of children to her pigs and bragged about having the fattest pigs in the region. She was apprehended after she torched her own home – with five children inside – to collect insurance money.

1892 – Guadalupe Martinez de Bejarano– Mexico City, Mexico – Sexually tortured and murdered 3 orphan girls. Her son’s participation was not clear, but he was at least a passive participant.

1903 – “Cairo Female Cannibal Serial Killer”– kidnapped, cooked and ate children.

1904 – Jeanne Bonnaud  Chatain, Haute Vienne, France
A young girl of eighteen, named Jeanne Bonnaud confessed to an extraordinary series of infant murders. She murdered several children including her sister before being caught trying to push two others down a well.

1906 – Lillian B. Thorman– York, Pennsylvania – A 15-year old servant girl murdered a child who was “roasted from head to toe” by placing the youngster on the stove. After her arrest it was learned she had previously murdered three other children in the same manner, getting away with the crimes by having concocting stories of accidents.

1912 – Ivanova Tamarin– Estonia – With her 17-year-old daughter and accomplices she robbed, murdered, mutilated and cannibalized 27 persons.

1912 – Maria ReyesMexico City, Mexico – kidnapped and murdered babies and toddlers.

1913 – Madame Kusnezowa– Russia – Another child care provider who was charged with having murdered more than 1,000 children.

1926 – Josephine Tzany–an avowed predatory misandrist who sought out men, mostly married ones, to seduce and then murder, 12 of them.

1960 – Magdalena Solis– Mexico – “The High Priestess of Blood”

1968 – Mary Bell– England – 11-year-old girl who murdered two boys, 5 and 4, plus several previous attempted murders

1989 – Sara María Aldrete– Mexico

2000 – Credonia Mwerinde– Uganda – cult leader suspected of murdering three of her brothers and confirmed as the instigator of the arson mass murder of over 700 cult members.

2012 –  “Indonesian Female Cannibal Serial Killer”– Indonesia

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Come back to this post in a month or so and there will be more. We've been coming up with gobs of old and new cases are just too darn creepy to be left off the list.

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Rose Porro & Margarite Coraldi, Italian Child Care Providers Who Serially Murdered Babies - 1873

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FULL TEXT (Article 1 of 2): Convincing evidence of a revolting crime, or rather a series of crimes, has recently been discovered in Naples, involving the wholesale murder of innocent babes by a process which tasks the credulity of human nature. The person charged with these crimes is a woman named Rose Porro, who has occupied unpretentious quarters only three doors from the little chapel of San Severo, on one of the most frequented streets In Naples. The attention of the police was first attracted by the frequent appearance in the Neapolitan Journals of an advertisement, the purport of which was that persons wishing to relinquish their claim upon infants could find a home for them by calling upon and paying a certain sum to Rose Porro. Two policemen were assigned recently to investigate the subject, and the rest of their vigilance was the discovery that an extraordinary number of babies were brought to these apartments, and that they were rarely if ever brought away. A close search through every part of the house was instituted, and in various rooms infants were found sprawling about the bare floors, crying from cold and hunger. The cellar was also searched, and here the corpses of five children were found, and beneath the tiles of the floor were three other bodies. The house was taken possession of by the police, who will closely inspect the walls to find out the full extent of this grievous roll of infanticides. The keeper of the house is described as a strong, beautiful and cunning woman in appearance with an air of innocence that would deceive the sharpest detective.

["Baby Farming." The Charleston Daily News (S.C.), Jan. 24, 1873, p. 3]

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FULL TEXT (Arrticle 2 of 2): The two baby farmers of Naples, whose appalling crimes have already been narrated, recently paid the penalty for their deeds on the block In the Castle d’Novo [Castle dell-Oro], near Naples. The prisoners were brought before a judge and jury, and after a brief trial, during which the most revolting details of their terrible crime were elicited, both Rose Porro and Margerite Coraldi were sentenced to death. The scene in the court-room on their being pronounced guilt; was affecting in the extreme, the women sobbing hysterically and kneeling in the dock to supplicate for mercy. A Naples letter thus describes the execution:

Early yesterday morning, when hardly a soul was astir in the narrow and boisterous
thoroughfares of Naples, an ominous looking vehicle stood in front of the Prefect’s chamber, near the Chlaja. On the uppermost floor of the prison in the chapel, where the condemned women were attending mass - their last mass and the mournful strains of the “Miserere,” chanted by the sisters in their choir, could be heard gloomily walling though the long corridors. The prisoners, still in black, knelt near the altar, and at the appointed time received their last communion.

TO THE EXECUTION.

Towards half-past six the prisoners, flanked by an escort of ten gendarmes and preceded by three, clergymen, moved from the chapel to the van in front of the prison door. The
van contained the prisoners, the chaplain and assistants, two Sisters of Charity, the prefect and his lieutenant, and the usual guards on be outside. While the van was roiling over the pavement on its way to the Castle d’Novo [Castle dell-Oro], which is built right on the edge of the Bay of Naples, many harsh comments were made from groups of stragglers, while an occasional merciful one vouchsafed an ejaculation such as “The Lord have mercy upon them!” for well they all knew me mission of the rusty wheeled black van of the prison. During the tedious drive the prisoners prayed and sobbed alternately, and spoke little and only in whispers to the kind Sisters of Charity, who never ceased offering them religious consolation.

A guard of policemen occupied the gates of Castle d’Novo [Castle dell-Oro], and doffed their hats when the van drove up and the prefect made his appearance. The gates being thrown open, the trembling prisoners were led through a long, stony passageway darkened by high wails. Upon reaching the rooms of the jailer,

THE SISTERS,

assisted by other women, removed the cloaks and bonnets of the prisoners. The priests, sisters of charity, and prisoners then knelt and prayed, be officers standing round with bowed an uncovered heads, at the close of the prayers for the dying, the executioner appeared, wearing a black mask and black singlet shirt. Assisted by the jailer the executioner pinioned the arms of the criminals. The plain white collars around the doomed women’s necks were removed, and all being read; the vine cortege moved through two passage-ways until the place of execution presented itself. It was a very unique sight.

At the extremity of a small, stone-surrounded and a stone-bottomed yard a flat rock shaped into a platform about eight feet square and two in height. On one end of this old stage, upon which only the last act is ever performed, there is a very narrow step, for only the executioner and his help, the jailer, use it. In the centre of the platform stood a block, the old block mentioned above, with a little belt or hook in front for fastening the neck securely. The unfortunate women when confronting this scene prayed aloud and cried hysterically. The usual prayers were recited, and when concluded the jailer paned to the executioner a long instrument in an ancient looking scabbard of leather covered with steel and brass platings. The executioner, though evidently a youngman, seemed familiar with the paraphernalia of his sorrowful craft. He adroitly unclasped the heavy scabbard, drew forth a large

GLISTENING AXE,

with a blade like a colossal razor, and took up his position on the rear of the platform. The criminal’s eyes were bandaged with long strips of linen, which left enough to bind the head to the block.

Rose Porro was first conducted to the block, and when the jailer was about to place the linen over her eyes she staggered back and made a violent movement with her hands aat she would burst her pinions. But the chaplain’s voice calmed her, and according to his admonition she repeated the divine prayer, “Into Thy hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit,” and fell upon her knees.

Margarita Coraldi was removed to the entrance of the yard, and prevented from witnessing her accomplice’s death. The prison bell of Castle d’Novo [Castle dell’Oro] was now tolling slowly, the clergy and nuns were praying fervently, and Rose Porro’s white neck was made rest to the block and exposed to the glittering axe of the executioner.

The chief warden of the castle, who may be called, a sheriff, came near the platform in company with two medical men and the Sindaco. The chief warden motioned to all present to preserve strict silence, and then turning toward be executioner be raised his right hand-the signal for the fatal blow. The executioner, whose mask had been glaring weirdly at the sheriff awaiting that signal, lifted his weapon and stepped to the left side of the prisoner.

Se raised the axe about one foot from the neck of Rose Porro by way of taking aim, and then swinging it above his head he brought lbs heavy blade down with all his might, and

THE HEAD DROPPED OVER THE BLOCK.

The trunk rose nearly a foot and a half, as if living, by the sudden spasmodic action of
the severed nerves. A liner was immediately at hand, and the trunk and bead of what was Bose Porro, the infamous baby farmer, were removed, and Margarita Coraldi was led to the block. She prayed constantly, and did not evince any great fear until her head was forced on the fatal stann, when she uttered a brief, nervous scream. Her bead was not completely severed with the first blow. The skin of the front of the neck remained uncut, and the body, springing back, exposed a ghastly gap which made every spectator shudder, and caused the platform to be smeared with blood. A pail was thrown over the body and its head, and both were removed on a litter to await, like Porro’s corpse, burial in unconsecrated ground. The fulfilling of the executioner’s contract was to wipe and whet the axe be used, and replace it in the scabbard fit for future emergencies.

[“Two Women On The Block. The Awful End Of The Baby Farmers Of Naples. - The Necks of Two Murderesses Bared to the Axe - Rose Porro and Margarite Coraldi Expatiating their Unparalleled Crimes.” Dallas Daily Herald (Tx.), Mar. 22, 1873, p. 1]

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For more cases of “Baby Farmers,” professional child care providers who murdered children see The Forgotten Serial Killers.

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Shirin Gul, “The Kebab Killer”: Prolific Afghan Serial Killer Bandit - 2004

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Shirin Gul, “The Kebab Killer,” was convicted in Afghanistan of killing 28 men in collaboration with her husband and his in-laws. The family was part of a large regional gang that specialized in stealing and selling cars, particularly taxis. Accomplices were used to transport taxis over the Pakistani border to the town of Miram Shah, where the cars were sold there for more than $10,000 each. The three accused men admitted that they had invited the men into their home with offers of tea and kebabs, which contained sedatives. Then they would kill and rob them. According to some reports, Shirin would also lure taxi drivers to her house for sexual intercourse.

Her lover Rahmatullah, her 18-year-old son, Samiullah, and four others believed to be involved in the killings. Rahmatullah had murdered her first husband. Police think her first husband, Mohammed Azam, was probably an accomplice in the early murders but was himself killed when Shirin Gul and Rahmatullah became lovers.

During an investigation that began in June 2004 with the discovery of the naked body of a wealthy businessman Haji Mohammed Anwar, near Kabul, He had been invited to the couple's home, ostensibly to discuss a property deal. Soon after the start of the  investigation of the Anwar murder, police recovered 18 corpses from under the yard of Shirin Gul’s former home in the eastern city of Jalalabad, and another six at an address in Kabul.

The body of Shirin Gul's 60-year-old first husband was found under the floor of her Jalalabad home. After murdering Azam in Jalalabad, the killer couple moved from to Kabul and lived as man and wife. The murderess liked to spend her loot on gold jewelry and shoes.

Shirin was sentenced to 20 years in prison.  It is thought that “still runs a mafia-style operation from her cell.” (St. Estephe text) 

[One of the sources: Tom Coghlan, “’Kebab killer’ defies Kabul court,” BBC News, Mar. 29, 2005]

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For similar cases, see: Female Serial Killer Bandits

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Annie Tooke, Baby Farmer Who Smothered and Chopped Up a Child - 1879

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FULL TEXT: Annie Tooke, a middle-aged widow, was executed on 11th August, within Exeter Gaol, for the murder of an illegitimate child which had been put with her to nurse, the first smothered the child, and then chopped the body in pieces, find threw the remains into a mill stream. The prison hospital was turned into a place of execution, and Marwood, who was the executioner, gave a drop of seven feet. Prisoner’s four children visited her on Saturday. The representatives of the press were not admitted to the execution, but they were allowed to attend the inquest, and view the body with the jury. The governor of the prison produced a copy of the following statement made by the culprit : — “I hereby acknowledge that the confession which I first made to Captain Bent is true in the main particulars, and that I am justly to suffer for my dreadful crime, for which, as for all my many sins, I do most truly repent, and heartily pray God’s mercy for the sake of His dear Son, my only Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.— Signed by me, Annie Tooke.”

[Untitled, The Auckland Evening Star (New Zealand), Oct. 16, 1879, p. 3]

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FULL TEXT: Reginald Hyde was born on the 6th of October 1878 to a young woman from Camborne in Cornwall called Mary Hoskins, who moved to Idenear Exeter in Devon to conceal the pregnancy. She was persuaded by her brother to give the child up to a “nurse” and made contact with Annie Tooke who agreed to take Reginald on for £12, plus 5 shillings (25p) a week.  Annie moved from Ideto South Street Exeter in the Spring of 1879 and had difficulty coping with the growing Reginald.

The baby was not seen alive after the 9th of May but a child’s torso was discovered on the 17th of May by a local miller. The head, limbs and genitals were missing but were discovered nearby.  This gruesome find made the papers and the story was read by a butcher and a doctor from Ide who knew Annie and the child.  They visited her and asked to see Reginald whom she was unable to produce - instead making up a story about an unnamed person having taken him away a fortnight earlier.

The police initially suspected that Mary Hoskins had been responsible for the death (presumably to save the five shillings a week) and took Annie to Camborne to identify her. Mary was arrested and charged with the crime. Annie gave Captain Bent, the Chief Constable of Exeter, a statement describing how the child had been taken but he became suspicious of her testimony and arrested her. While in Exeter prison she made a full confession to him, saying how she had suffocated Reginald with a pillow and then cut him up with the fire wood chopper on the coal bunker.  She later withdrew this confession. 

She was tried at Exeter on the 21st and 22nd of July 1879 and the jury believed her confession, supported by blood stains on items of her clothing and the coal bunker. She was convicted and hanged on Monday, the 11th of August by William Marwood.  There seems little doubt that she was guilty and that the murder was typical of the “Baby farming” style of crime, however there is no evidence to show that she was involved with any other children, unlike the other women on this page.


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For more cases of “Baby Farmers,” professional child care providers who murdered children see The Forgotten Serial Killers.

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Ellen Batts, Australian Child Care Provider Accused of Murdering 3 Babies - 1889

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FULL TEXT (Article 1 of 2): At Waverley. yesterday the inquest on the body of the infant, Elizabeth Cohen, who died on 10th instant, at the residence of Mrs. Ellen Batts, No. 10, Vernon-street, Waverley, having been in that person’s care, was resumed before the City Coroner and a jury of twelve.

Mrs. Batts, who is now awaiting trial, charged with the murder of two other infants, was before the court.

William Mogford Hamlett, Government Analyst, stated that he subjected to chemical analysis the stomach and viscera of the deceased, which had been placed in a sealed jar. The stomach was almost empty, only a very small quantity of liquid being present. The membrane was very much blackened and discolored. The liquid was examined and found to contain traces of lime and carbonate of soda. The whole of the viscera was divided and analysed, but no metallic or other irritant poisons could be discovered. Neither were there any alkaloids or vegetable poisons ; but there were found traces of cadavaic alkaloids.

By the jury : It was not usual to find lime and carbonate of soda in the stomach of infants. The carbonate of soda might possibly have endangered the life of the child by preventing digestion. By Mrs. Batts : The lime may have been given to the child with water. By the jury : It was possible sometimes to trace the presence of laudanum in the system ; but owing to the rapid absorption of the drug it was frequently impossible.

Dr. F. M. Smith, of Waverley, said that, having heard the evidence of Mr. Hamlett, he was of opinion that death was due to improper and injudicious feeding, which was tantamount to starvation.

Dr. Goode corroborated Dr. Smith’s opinion as to the cause of death. The average weight of a new-born babe was about 7 1b, but the deceased, who was 2 months old, only weighed 3 1b 9 oz. The average weight of a child about 2 months old was from 9 1b to 12 lb.

Senior-Constable Bobert Stove, stationed at Waverley, testified to having handed the viscera of the deceased, which was in a sealed jar, to the Government analyst.

Emily Stephens deposed that up to the 10th instant she was house-keeping for the late Benjamin Hyam Cohen, at No. 56, Newtown-road. She was present at the birth of the deceased infant, Elizabeth Cohen, on or about August 11. The mother of the child, and the late Mr. Cohen requested witness to take the child to Mrs. Batts’s place. Witness accordingly took the baby there when it was about nine hours’ old. About two months before the child was born witness and Miss Cohen (the mother) went to Mrs. Batts and made arrangements about taking the infant. Did not then hear anything said about payment. On the Wednesday after witness took the child to Mrs. Batts the late Mr. Cohen authorised her (witness) to again see Mrs. Batts, and ask what she would charge for adopting the baby, and added “Get her to do it as reasonable as possible — say about £7.” Told Mr. Cohen that Mrs. Batts would not take less than £9 10s, and the following day that amount was accordingly paid her, for which witness was given a receipt. When witness saw the child again it was sickly and was suffering from a cold.

Ellen Batts, after being cautioned in the usual way by the Coroner, deposed that when she received the child it was small and weak. Fed her on cow’s milk and limewater. Sometimes fed her with a spoon. Never gave the deceased any carbonate of soda. Cleaned the feeding-bottles with washing soda and water. Witness always prepared the food, and gave it to the babies her self. Deceased soon contracted jaundice. Used about three and a-half bottles of cod liver oil in all, but she did not get any better. Deceased was then seized with the whooping cough, and witness gave her syrup of squills. Deceased, like the other children, never could keep any food on its stomach. Witness had six teen years’ knowledge of the rearing of children. Believed deceased to have died of whooping cough. Witness found the clothing for deceased, but the late Mr. Cohen paid the funeral expenses. For a whole month witness never retired to bed, in consequence of having to attend to the children who were suffering from whooping cough. Never allowed the babies to sleep together. Witness received £9 10s for adopting the deceased.

By the jury: She did not send for a doctor, because the child did not seem to fall away, only when it was seized with the whooping cough. Three babies were taken away from her charge. During the past eight months she had adopted four children, all of whom were dead. Within the past eleven months twelve children had died in her house. The Coroner in summing up said that according to the evidence of the mother and Mrs. Stephens, the child was strong and healthy when born, but this was denied by Mrs. Batts. The evidence of the doctors prove that the child was healthy; but that it had been deprived of food and proper nourishment, and they could not in any other way account for death. Therefore the jury could scarcely come to the conclusion that death arose from natural causes. The child had been placed in Mrs. Batts’s charge, and she was responsible for its care. The jury would have to consider whether this child’s death was due to wilful starvation or simple negligence— one was murder and the other manslaughter.

The jury then retired to consider their verdict, and after half . an hour’s deliberation, returned a verdict of wilful murder against the woman Ellen Batts.

Mrs. Batts was then formally committed to take her trial.

[“That Waverley Baby Farm. Inquest On The Third Infant. - Died From Starvation. Mrs. Batts Again Committed To Murder.” Evening News (Sydney, NSW, Australia), Oct. 3, 1889, p. 6]

***

FULL TEXT (Article 2 of 2): Ellen Batts, the keeper of a babyfarm at Woollahra, has been again acquitted on a charge of murdering another of the infants who died while in her keeping.

[From “New South Wales” column, The South Australian Register (Adelaide, Australia), Nov. 25, 1889. p. 3]

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For more cases of “Baby Farmers,” professional child care providers who murdered children see The Forgotten Serial Killers.

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Rhoda Willis, Welch Child Care Provider Hanged for Murder - 1907

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NOTE: Rhoda Willis called herself “Leslie James.” She was the last woman to be executed in Wales.

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FULL TEXT Mrs. Leslie James, the baby-farmer, was executed in Cardiff gaol for child murder on August 14th at eight o’clock. By a strange coincidence the date of her execution was that of her forty-fourth birthday. Strenuous efforts had been made to obtain a reprieve for her, but the Home Secretary could find no grounds on which to recommend her to mercy.

The murder for which she was executed was that of a child entrusted to her care with which she had received a premium. Before going to the scaffold she made a full confession of her guilt, and admitted the justice of her sentence.

The confession was made to her solicitor, for whom Mrs James sent after breakfast, and took the following form: —

“I wilfully killed the child. I killed it in the train on the way to Cardiff. A sudden temptation came over me, and I could not resist. I particularly want those who tried me, particularly the judge, to know that I was quite guilty, as I should not like to die with any chance of them thinking I was innocent. It has been a great comfort for me to tell you this, and I can now die with a  clear conscience.”

It is also understood that some days before her trial she confessed to a fellow prisoner that she had killed the child. At first she thought of drowning it in a bath, but afterwards smothered it.

~ AFFECTING INTERVIEW. ~

On Monday afternoon Mrs James, very penitent and quite resigned to her fate, asked to see the governor. That gentleman at once responded to the condemned woman’s request, and after the interview despatched the following telegram to Liverpool to the man who had massed as her husband: —

“Come at once. Now wishes to see you. Lose no time.”

Travelling all night, the man in question, who is a marine engineer, formerly in the service of Messrs Morel and Co., of Cardiff, reached the gaol early on Tuesday, and at 11 a.m. saw Mrs James, who received him at first cheerfully, but broke into a passion of tears as she asked after the two children she had had by him.

Before they parted she handed to him a letter, in which she stated that she was quite prepared for and resigned to her fate. She had never appreciated the singing of the birds and the sunshine more than during the last two or three days.

In pathetic terms she made reference to their two little girls, whom she commended to his care, and begged him not in any circumstances to divulge to them what their mother’s fate was.

She hoped God would pardon her for her sins, and she was certain she should die in the knowledge that she would be forgiven everything in the hereafter.

In her interview with her solicitor on Wednesday before proceeding to the scaffold Mrs James also signed her will, in which she left all she possessed to her Liverpool visitor.

She walked to the scaffold without kid and perfectly composed. Pierpoint, who had travelled from London after executing Brinkley at Wandsworth, was the executioner, and death after the drop fell was declared to have been instantaneous.

Mrs James’ maiden name was Rhoda Sidles, and she was born in Sunder , her father being a well-known hotel proprietor, who in later years took over a hotel in Birmingham, where he sold some years ago. She is described as being in those days a handsome girl, with. large, expressive eyes, and a wealth of golden hair. She received a first-class education at a private hoarding school on the outskirts of town.

When about nineteen years of age, Rhoda, as she was called in her young days, fell in love with and married Thomas Willis, a young Sunderland marine engineer, with a chief’s certificate. They were very happy, and eighteen years ago they settled in Grange town, Cardiff, bringing with them their only child, a bright little girl, who is now in domestic service at Cardiff.

Mr Willis died while on a visit to his friends in Sunderland some twelve years ago. Mrs James, returning to Car diff, then made the acquaintance of the marine engineer who paid her the last visit on Tuesday. She lived with him as his wife in Paget street, Grangetown. Cardiff. Two children were born, and then differences and quarrels arose.

At last the two agreed to separate, the woman going to her brother, a licensed victualler in Birmingham, and the children being left with the man. The woman, on returning to Cardiff from Birmingham after an absence of about two years, was in very straightened circumstances. Then she took to drink heavily – and that was the commencement of the downward career which has ended on the scaffold.

Twelve months ago Mrs James was Knocked down by a bicycle in Cow bridge road, Canton, Cardiff, and for twelve weeks she was under treatment at the workhouse infirmary. There she underwent an operation for an injury to the head sustained in the accident. Shortly after leaving the workhouse she got into the hands of the police for the first time in connection with the theft of a medal, and from that moment sank lower and lower.— “Lloyd’s Weekly.”

[“Hanged On Her Birthday. - A. Baby-Farmer’s End. - She Confessed Her Crime. Execution At Cardiff.” (from Lloyd’s Weekly, London), The Grenfell Record (Australia), Oct. 26, 1907, p. 7]

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The Forgotten Serial Killers: Child Care Providers (“Baby Farmers”) Who Murdered Children

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Most of the baby farmers listed her were serial killers. Several notable cases involving murder and abuse by baby farmers that are not serial killer cases.

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Abbott, Evelyn (USA), 1891 – scores of babies died
Ashmead, Elizabeth (USA), arrested 1904, 1909, 1911 – 100s of babies died
Atherton, Dr. Bessie (USA), (with Cramer), 1926 – 3 dead babies discovered
Bamberger, Henrietta (USA), 1899 – midwife; 300 est; conv of 1 abort-murder of mother
Barnes, Catherine (England), 1879 – 3 babies died
Barthian, Mme. (France), 1893 – 25 babies died
Batten, Annie (Australia), 1904 – “alleged wholesale infanticide”
Batts, Ellen (Australia), 1889 – 3 babies murdered
“Berlin Baby Farmer” (Germany), 1892 – 15 bodies found
Bilien, Valentina (Germany), 1946 – 114 babies killed by severe neglect

Blair, Anne (Australia), 1870 – 1 baby died
Breitschwart, Christine (USA), 1892 – 4 babies abandoned in streets & gutters in winter, 1 died
Campbell, Nellie (USA), arrested 1902 – 8 babies died
Chard-Williams, Ada (England), 1899 – 1 baby died
Chivers, Daisy Ellen (England), 1928 – 1 baby murdered; suspicion of others
“Christiana Baby Farmers” (Norway), 1902 –“a small army of tiny corpses were dug up”
Claus, Charles & Catherine (USA), 1890 – 5 babies died
Clayton, Madge (Australia), 1908 – 6 babies died
Compton, Mary (England), 1673 – willfully starved 4 children
Connelly, Matilda (USA), 1912 – 4 babies died
Cooper, Martha & Daniel (New Zealand), 1922 – 3 dead babies discovered
Cramer, Marie (USA), (with Atherton), 1926 – 3 dead babies discovered
Day, Gertrude (USA), 1914 – unsolved mystery
Dean, Minnie (New Zealand), 1895 – 3 babies & 1 toddler died
De Jesus, Luisa(Portugal), 1772 – poisoned to death 28 babies
Delaware, Miss (New Zealand), 1889 – many babies killed
Delpech, Madame (France), 1869 – murdered 10 babies
Dieden, Maude (USA), 1929 – 10 babies died
Douglas, Amy (England), 1899 – 3 babies died from starvation
Dyer, Amelia (England), 1896 – 100s of babies died
Eckhardt, Wilhelmena (USA), 1906 – 12 babies died
Geisen-Volk, Helen (USA), 1925 – 53 babies died
Gobay, Annie & Emma Kitchen (USA),1903 – at least 3 babies died
Grammage, Augusta (England), 1875 – convicted of murdering a child
“Grey Nuns of Montreal” (Canada), 1876 – 631 babies died
Gunness, Belle (USA), 1908 – 21 babies “disappeared”
Guy, Mary Ann (New Zealand) – convicted of manslaughter for one death
Guzovska, Madame (Poland), 1903 – “over 500” babies died
Hanson, Annie (USA), 1892 – at least 5 babies died
Holmen, Mrs. (Sweden), 1906 – over 1,000 babies died
Ishikawa, Miyuki  (Japan), 1948 – 103 babies died
Jager, Mari Azalai (Hungary), 1897 – a very large number of babies died
Julien, Madame (France), 1867 – midwife, many victims
King, Jessie (Scotland), 1889 – 3 babies died
Knorr, Frances (Australia), 1894 – from 3 to an estimated 13 babies died
Konopkova, Marianne (Poland), 1906 – 30 babies died
Kreis Children’s Home: Schmidt, Ella, Liesel Bachor & Kathe Pisters (Germany), 1946 – 370 babies
Kusnezowa, Madame (Russia) 1913 – 1,012 babies died
Lacroix, Diana (Canada), 1927 – 7 babies died
Laphame, Belinda (USA), 1893 – 3 or 4 babies killed, kept in jars; others killed
“Limburg Baby Farmers” (Germany), 1892 – multiple babies died
Lowry, Mary (USA), 1904 – 2 babies died, 3 babies near death
Lynn, Rachel (USA), 1911 – unknown number of babies died
Mabre, Louise (France) 1763 – 62 babies died
Makin, Jane (Australia), 1892 – 13 babies died
McClosky, Margaret (USA), 1876 – 6 babies in starving condition
McDonald, Cynthia (USA), 1887 – 2 babies died, 2 babies in starving condition
McKenzie, Emily Charlotte (England) 1884 – many babies died
Miller, Mrs. A. H. (USA), 1903 – 2 babies died; additional bodies searched
“Minneapolis Baby Farmer” (USA), 1908 – starving baby rescued
Mitchell, Alice (Australia), 1907 – 37 babies died
Mittlestedt, Pauline (USA), 1886 – “professional infant murderess”
Myer, Frau (Germany), 1892 – 58 babies died
Newman, Isabella (Australia), 1913 – 3 babies died
“Nijni-Novrogod Nurse” (Russia), 1894 – 17 babies died
Nivison, Symenthe S. (USA), 1884 – 22 babies died
Noskina, Feige (Russia), 1892 – 65 babies died
“Odessa Baby Farmer” (Ukraine), 1887 – 10 babies died
“Osaka Baby Farmers” (Japan), 1902 – 300 babies died
“Osaka ‘Devil Woman’” (Japan), 1906 – 100 babies murdered
Ostrovoskafa, Rachel (Ukraine), 1885 – more than 3 babies died; infanticide cult
Overbye, Dagmar (Denmark), 1920 – 11 confessed child-murders
Porro, Rose & Margarite Coraldi (Italy), 1873 –8 babies killed
“Przemysi Baby Farmers” (Austria), 1893 – 27 babies buried in cigar boxes
Reignolds, Mary (USA), 1875 – 5 babies died
Rogers, Frances (England), 1871 – 4 children died, sentenced to 20 years
Roseberry, Edna (USA), 1948 – tortured babies routinely
Sach, Amelia & Annie Walters (England), 1902 – probably 100s of babies died
Seiffert, Jennie (USA), 1889 – 2 babies dead, 4 dying
Skoublinska, Marianne (Poland), 1890 – 76 babies
Spinks, Ann (England), 1898 – at least 2 babies died
Tanaka, Mrs. & Mrs Juniki (Japan), 1924 – 8 babies murdered by fake foster parents
Tann, Georgia (USA), 1950 – 1,000s of babies died
Tooke, Annie (England), 1879 – 1 child murdered & dismembered
Turner, Maud (Canada), 1909 –suspected of numerous murders
Tydrych, Leontina (Poland), 1927 – 60 babies died
“Villa Vico Baby Farmer” (Portugal), 1854 – 9 babies died
“Vivienne Midwife” (France) 1906 – 120 babies died
Waters, Margaret (England), 1870 – 5 babies died
Wiese, Elizabeth (Germany), 1903 – burned babies in stove
West, Mrs. Fred (USA), 1906 – burned babies alive
Willis, Rhoda (Wales), 1907 – 2 babies died
Winsor, Charlotte (England), 1865 – unknown number
Worcester, Rozilla (USA), 1877 – 6 babies died (in 30 day period)
Young, Lila & William (Canada), 1936 – an estimated 400-600 babies died

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NOTE: A few of the cases in the list involve non-serial killers: baby-torturers or providers who are confirmed to have killed only one or two of their charges.

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Murder Method (when known):

Battery – Geisen-Volk, Noskina

Buried Alive – Ashmead, Wiese

Crushed to Death – Winsor

Drown – Delpech, Overbye, Wiese, Noskina (in cesspool)

Drugging / Poisoning – Dean (laudanum), Jager (poison), Kusnezowa (poison), Mabre (arsenic), Reignolds (laudanum), Sach & Walters (chlorodyne), Topper (poison), West (laudanum), Nivison (morphine, belladonna), West (laudanum), Dean (laudanum), Reignolds (laudanum), Waters (laudanum), Luisa de Jesus, Wiese (morphine), King (arsenic), Laphame (opium)

Exposure – Tann (sun), Chivers (cold), Barnes (no clothing), Geisen-Volk (frozen), Breitschwart (frozen) 

Incineration alive – Ashmead, Overbye, Stysinski (arson), West, Wiese

Needle into heart°– Makin (needle, heart), Mittlestedt (darning needle, heart)

Neglect – Ishikawa, Mitchell, Nivison, Rogers, Spinks, Waters, Young, McCloskey, Geisen-Volk

Starvation – Barnes, Barthian, Campbell, Lowry, McClosky, Mitchell, Seifert, Tanaka, Waters, Julien

Strangling by hand or instrument – Chard-Williams*, Claus, Compton, Cooper, Douglas, Dyer, King, Knorr, Ostrovoskafa, Overbye, Turner, Geisen-Volk

Suffocation – Dean, Newman, Winsor, Noskina

Twisting baby’s neck – Eckhardt


***

Burned corpses after murder: Asmead, Birney, Chivers, Eckhardt, Overbye, "Vivienne Midwife," West, Wiese

+++ +++

* Chard-Williams - Stunned, strangled and trussed up with cords
° Similar method used by nursemaid: Schnell (hairpin into brain)

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• Baby Farmers & Baby-Killing Midwives Executed

1763 – Louise Mabre (France)
1772 – Luisa de Jesus (Portugal)
1870 – Margaret Waters (England)
1873 Rose Porro & Margarite Coraldi(Italy)
1896 – Amelia Dyer (England)
1902 – Amelia Sach & Annie Walters (England)
1889 – Jesse King (Scotland)
1903 – Elizabeth Wiese (Germany)
1865 – Catherine Winsor (England)
1907 – Rhoda Willis (Wales)
1895 – Minnie Dean (New Zealand)
1922 – Daniel Cooper (Australia)
1894 – Frances Knorr (Australia)

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For a detailed look at a baby farm visit:



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This photograph of Frankie Heath, rescued from a Minneapolis baby farmer,   is taken from this post:

“Minneapolis Baby Farmer” (USA), 1908 – starving baby rescued

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ALSO SEE the related category of Baby-Sitter Serial Killers

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Tour Through a Chicago Baby Farm in 1912

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FULL TEXT: “Baby Farming” has extended as a profitable business in Chicago.

The profits accrue from starved bodies, neglected and ill treated children, homeless and dependent upon the “farmer,” whom with which they are “boarded” at from $3 to $7 per week.

Most of the “farms” are situated in districts where tumbling buildings are decaying in filth and neglect. The babies are helpless and have no right of selection; they must suffer in silence and often die from disease and neglect.

The first baby farm visited by a reporter for the Sunday Tribune was kept by a middle aged woman trying to care for eight or ten small children in cramped quarters and under poor conditions. Undoubtedly this woman meant well enough. But she needed the money. She simply could not devote enough time to each child to give its little life a fighting chance.

A “baby farm” does not mean a place where the grass is green and there are plenty of trees and cows, but a dingy flat in the “yards” or a four room cottage on a corner where five car lines meet. There is comfortable about a “baby farm” but the income of the woman, who often appears corpulent and luxurious in contrast to the emaciated infants in her charge. They look like cadaverous birds, opening their months continuously for nourishment for nourishment which they do not get.

~  Inspection Fear of Keepers. ~

When a Tribune reporter went unbidden to one “baby farm” in the suburbs, the woman in charge turned pale and her lips trembled. She almost dropped a bottle of soothing syrup she was carrying and gained control of herself only when told that the reporter had a baby to board.

“O,” she said, taking a long breath, “I thought you were from the board of heath. They are inspectin’ the babies somethin’ fierce. Don’t allow more than four children to a house they are getting’ so strict.”

Wails from several distressed voices floated down from the attic as she spoke, and there were five children in the room. It was one of those problems of two times two are five, which the essayists used to write about in school on composition week.

Mental calculation was interrupted by the door bell. A pale mother, almost lost under a sailor hat, and in a cheap long coat, stood on a little stoop before the door. She wished to board her 10 days’ old baby, as she had to go to work in a restaurant the next day. A whispered conference followed in the doorway. The frail mother crossed the woman’s palm with three silver pieces of silver before she hurried off to fetch her baby.

~  Infants the Choice Boarders. ~
“How old is your baby?” was asked.

“A year old,” I stammered, not knowing whether to make my fictitious child real young or not. Then I realized my mistake.

“I like infants best. Infants sleep most of the time and don’t bother me,” she said, shaking the bottle of cordial significantly.

“What do you charge?” I asked.

She picked up a weak child from a dirty gray blanket on a bare floor and said” I get $5 a week for boardin’ this one. She’s getting’ her teeth and looks puny, but she’s strong.”

“I’ll pay you $5 a week, but I must look over the place and see just where the baby will sleep and what attention you can give it.”

The woman slanted her shrewd eyes demurred, haggling for a bargain.

“I hain’t got much room. I have four children of my own, and there are my two boarders, my husband, and myself. My father lives with me, too. I can’t take no more babies in the attic, but I’ll put your baby in the parlor for $7 a week.”

I was afraid of the cats in the front room

~ Cats the Lesser Danger. ~

“Nothin’ is going to hurt your baby sleepin’ down here, she insisted a little coldly, lifting her voice above the wails of infants in the attic. “I’ve boarded children goin’ on six years, and nothin’ has ever happened to one of them.

I insisted upon placing my child in the attic. Then she reluctantly led the way through the kitchen, where I discovered more children. A 2 year old child boarder in a dirty dress rocked herself wearily near the range. Two other wais stood on chairs, hacking at a loaf of bread lying on the mussy oilcloth on the kitchen table. A bare back yard decorated with scraps of old iron and many tin cans could be seen its whole length to the high, unpainted board fence, through the open doorway, This is where the children play.

I stumbled up the stairs behind the woman, who became wedged in the narrow passageway now and then and stopped to catch her breath. At last we reached the top. It was only a half room up there. I could stand up straight only when I gained the middle of the room. On a bed in a dark corner lay eight babies, half undressed, and crying and unsquirming in uncleanliness. Empty milk bottles and dirty clothes were scattered over the floor. The one window in the in the attic was closed were scattered over the floor. The one window in the attic was closed securely by a nail. I hurried down.

~ All for the Greed of Money! ~

Eight babies in the attic, eight below, four children of her own, two boarders, an aged father, her husband, and herself to care for, all living in four rooms and an attic, this is what the greed for money had led one woman to. Besides, she washed and ironed and did all her housework while caring for the boarding babies.

A bleak wall on an unpaved street was the exterior of a certain was the exterior of a certain “baby farm” in a third floor flat down in the “yards.” Pushing the button above the speaking tube in the middle of the wall, I listened.

“Who’s there?” came down through the mouthpiece.

“I wish to come up.”

“Take the back stairs,” came the answer.

Following the broken board walk, I squeezed between two walls and climbed the rickety back stairs. The surprised German maid announced that her mistress was not at home when I pushed through the screen door. I felt relieved that it wasn’t necessary to have the responsibility of a six weeks’ old baby on my hands to board. (I changed the age of the child from one year to six weeks on the way down on the street car.) All I had to do at the second “baby farm” was to look around.

~ Room in General Disarray. ~

On the floor in the kitchen lay four babies kicking first one pink sock in the air and then a white one. I noticed that the stockings of most of the babies were not mates. On the kitchen table stood three clothes baskets, and in each was an infant wailing pitesly. In the corners, on chairs, beside the kitchen range, hanging like cocoons everywhere were baskets with babies sleeping on pillows turned brown from uncleanliness.

There were nine in the kitchen alone. In the next room were more frail babies, howling from the go-carts, cribs, and baskets. And in the front room more babies cried. An infant covered by a mosquito bar lay apart. She had sore eyes.

~ Milk Not Even Boiled. ~

A 17 year old mother stood leaning over a sleeping baby in the parlor. “He’s nine. His name is red,” she whispered. “Doesn’t he look bad? They almost killed him after I left him here three weeks. He was so neglected that he had spasms. I had to give up my work in the factory and watch him for three weeks. He’s still thin. The doctor said he was starving by inches.

“One time I came to visit him I found him drinking raw milk that had not been boiled. That is how they looked after the babies here. Another time when I came unexpectedly to see my baby I found a strange baby wearing my baby’s clothes.

“The superintendent of the ‘baby farm’ is cruel to the older children. She’s too strict, doesn’t allow them to play in the yard, and makes them sit in a chair all day when she is around. She sends them off to school without breakfast, and they have only bread and molasses for lunch. One morning I had a spare hour before I had to be at the factory. I ran down to see my baby. I did not see the older children eating breakfast She answered that none of the children had.

“As a punishment, the superintendent of the ‘baby farm’ makes the children stand in a corner for hours when they are naughty. She had a dark closet for the mischieveous ones. She pours castor oil and other lubricants down the throats of youngsters who tell falsehoods or washes their mouths out with strong soap to keep them from telling ‘stories.’ They must play in a subdued way in the kitchen, if they play at all.”

~ Little Incentive to Laughter. ~

I glanced at the three little girls and the one little boy sitting around the kitchen table stacking a deck of greasy playing cards. They looked as if they never smiled.

The maid fished a bottle of milk from the tin boiler, full of hot water, on the kitchen range. She carried it to the second room. A loud scream of pain came from a second room. The 17 year old mother and I ran to the rescue of the infant in distress. The mother reached the child first. She cooled the hot bottle of milk under a faucet in the kitchen.

“How they attend to babies, giving them boiling milk,” snapped the mother, trying to relieve the burned child’s pain, while the maid mumbled” “I know how the milk should be. It’s not too hot,”

It is usually one long, hard struggle with neglect and continuous discomfort for the children. Two infants were killed from underfeeding at one “farm,” the records show; one child was whipped with a rawhide by an attendant, the mother claimed; a baby’s fingers were burned; an infant was scalded on the side when the mother called for a visit. Anyhow, the sixteen infants in this “baby farm” in the third floor flat down in the “yards” looked like plants kept away from the sun.

~ Many Reasons for Seclusion. ~

The children are kept housed for many reasons; because the neighbors do not like to have so many children around, and give the superintendent of the “farm” trouble in finding a flat, because there is danger from contagious disease when infants are taken abroad, or because the woman “farmer” is too proud to let it be known that she boards babies for a living.

One proprietor of a “baby farm” has four grown daughters who are devotees of fashion. These daughters object to the “baby farm” and the infants, although they have no compunction against spending the income from this source. One daughter attends normal school from money earned by her mother in the “baby farm,” yet daughter will do nothing for the babies while at home. She dislike to have them around.

[“Baby Farms in Chicago – Infants Boarded For $3 To $7 Per Week At A Big Profit Because They Require Little Care,” Chicago Tribune (Il.), Jun. 9, 1912, p. F-4]

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For more cases of “Baby Farmers,” professional child care providers who murdered children see The Forgotten Serial Killers.

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Christiana Breitschwert, New Jersey Serial Baby-Killer - 1892

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NOTE: This article reveals four actions which deserve to be described as premeditated attempted murders even though 3 of the 4 victims discovered were rescued before they perished.

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FULL TEXT:  Mrs. Christiana Breitschwert, a midwife, living on l’alisade Avenue, Jersey City Heights, was arraigned before Police Justice Davis in that city yesterday on a charge of abandoned a babe in the street. The frequency with which little children have been found on the streets, where they had been evidently left to die, aroused suspicions that someone was conducting a baby farm in that city. One was found in a gutter on Tonole Avenue with not a stitch of clothing on it one cold and rainy night recently. It was rescued in time to save its life, and sent to Snake Hill [Hospital]. A second was discovered a few nights later on Bowers Street. It too, was nude, and exposed to the atmosphere of a bitter night. Its death from pneumonia followed soon after its discovery. A third, with hands and feet frozen, was afterward discovered on Prospect Street. It was sent to the Christ Hospital, nursed back to health, and is now in the almshouse at Snake Hill.

Police Captain McNulty detailed Detective McNalty to investigate the matter. The detective’s suspicions were directed at once to Mrs. Breitschwert, and a careful watch was set on her. her learned a day or two ago that she was to receive a baby for care from New-York. It came. A night or two later it was found lying on the sidewalk on Prospect Street. The clothing found upon it was identified as some that had belonged to the midwife, and the midwife herself had been seen in the vicinity of the place where the little one was found an hour or two before its discovery. The result was her arrest.

In court yesterday she vehemently denied her guilt, and begged the court not to bring disgrace upon the gray hairs of her parents and upon her daughter just budding into womanhood by sending her to jail. Her aged father cried with her, and her daughter pleaded with her to be brave, because she knew she was guiltless. Justice Davis consented to accept bail in $1,000 for the woman’s appearance for further examination to-morrow morning.

[“Leaving Infants To Die – Mrs. Breitschwert Arrested For Baby Farming In Jersey City.” The New York Times (N.Y.), Jan. 15, 1892, p. 10]

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VICTIMS:

Died:
Bowers street baby, nude

Survived
Tonole Avenue gutter baby, nude
Prospect street baby, hands and feet frozen
Prospect street baby, clothed

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For more cases of “Baby Farmers,” professional child care providers who murdered children see The Forgotten Serial Killers.

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Anne Blair, Deadly Australian Child Care Provider - 1870

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FULL TEXT: Babies seem to be rather at a discount on Ballarat [Australia] just now, since they punish the killing of one by only nine months’ imprisonment, which the prisoner will probably reduce to half the period by her exemplary demeanor while in durance. This is the punishment awarded to Anne Blair, an old reckless baby-farmer, who was convicted at the Criminal Sessions of having caused the death of an infant entrusted to her care. True, she didn’t strangle it, or cut its throat, yet she did the poor little creature to death as effectively by neglect and starvation; and no doubt, when her time is up, she will resume her baby-farming operations as ruthlessly, if a little more cautiously, than before. What wonder that this species of child-murder flourishes when cases of detection are rare, and conviction is followed by only a few months’ board and lodging at the public expense. There is even a species of baby-kilting of which the Jaw takes no cognisance at all, because it cannot be set down to criminal neglect. Such was the case of James Buggy, three months old, son of an unmarried woman named O’Connor, at Richmond. At the inquest held on the child’s body, on Monday, it was shown that the mother, being a domestic servant, left him in charge of a married woman named Collins, who “brought him up by hand,” the effect of it being, according to the medical evidence that the child died from lack of its natural nourishment. The jury found that “no blame attached to the nurse.” Of course not, nobody was to blame, although nothing could be clearer than the fact that the child died from improper treatment.

[Untitled, The Grey River Argus (Greymouth, New Zealand), Sep. 3, 1870, p. 2]

***


For more cases of “Baby Farmers,” professional child care providers who murdered children see The Forgotten Serial Killers.

***

Female Serial Killers Who Liked to Murder Women

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The misandric myth that female violence is always defensive – primarily as the result of “oppression” of males – is challenged by such cases as these. Here is a selection of female serial killers who specialized in murdering women. Many of these psychopaths objectified other women in the form of exploiting and murdering them in partnership with males, yet there are just as many of these harpies who objectified other women with the assistance of only their own sick feminine egos.

An example why such lists as this one are valuable will be found on Yahoo Answers website. In January 2012 a student who was writing a paper for a psychology class asked this question: “Has the ever been a female serial killer that targeted only women?” Despite there being one answerer who offered Rosemary West as a single example, the “community” chose as “best answer” “No.”

◄••◄••◄••

1010 – Freydis Ericsdotter– Early (Viking) America – Murdered 5 women over political disputes §

1610 – Countess Elizabeth Báthory de Ecsed, “The Blood Countess” – Hungary – murdered, tortured and sexually mutilated young money, estimates vary, from 80 to 650

1762 – Darya Saltykova– Russia – murdered 138 women; victims were tortured and sexually mutilated before death.

1868 – Marie Jeanneret– Switzerland – 8 women, 1 man, others.

1883 – “Kakoorgachi Serial Murderess”– Calcutta, India – suspected of murdering 6 women, lured by superstitious charms.

1884 – “Varanda, Hungary Black Widow”– Hungary – confessed to murdering “hundreds” of women, plus, incidentally, 3 husbands.

1892 – Guadalupe Martinez de Bejarano– Mexico – sexually tortured and murdered 3 orphan girls

1903 – Mary McKnight– USA – murdered 5 women, 2 men, 3 children.

1917 – Leopoldine Kasparek– Austria – murdered 4 women; 12 additional women survived murder attempts; arrested 1917

1920 – Raya & Sakina Abdel-Aal– Egypt – murdered 17 women (and many more female victims suspected).

1924 – Anastasia Permiakova– Russia – As leader of a gang she murdered 20 women and girls, using a hatchet.

1938 – Marie Becker, “The Belgian Borgia” – Belgium – Acting as a nurse, she murdered 10 wealthy elderly widows. 

1938 – Moulay Hassan– Fez, Morocco – tortured and murdered numerous girls.

1940 – Leonarda Ciancuilli, “The Soap Maker, “The Witch of Correggio” – Italy – murdered 3 women. Their bodies were used to make soap and cakes.

1945 – Hermine Braunsteiner, "The Stomping Mare" – Germany – guard at Ravensbruück concentration camp. According to witness testimony she whipped several women to death and in other instances killed women by stomping on them with her steel-studded jackboots, earning her the nickname “The Stomping Mare.” B. was not “just following orders,” rather she was acting to serve her personal sadistic pleasure.

1945 – Irma Grese, “Beast of Belsen” – Germany – National Socialist Party SS member, Average number of victims, 30 a day, motivated by “sport.” She murdered female inmates in the concentration camp by ordering them  to venture into forbidden zones where they would be shot by guards under strict orders to kill all trespassers. G. was not “just following orders,” rather she was acting to serve her personal sadistic pleasure.

1949 – Martha Beck– USA – With Raymond Fernandez, murder 3 women and a 3-year-old girl; both were executed.

1949 – Irmgard Swinka– Germany – Robbed and murdered 5 women.

1950 – Mariam Soulakiotis, “The Woman Rasputin” – Greece – murdered 177 young women. Victims were brutally whipped and tortured before their deaths.

1953 – Caroline Grills– Australia – murdered 3 women & 1 man

1964 – Carmen, Mara Luisa, Delfina & Maria de Jesús Gonzáles– Mexico – victims estimated to be 91, including 80 women

1980 – Charlene Gallego– USA – murdered 9 girls and women, mostly teenagers with partner Gerald Gallego; victims were raped.

1982 – Judith Neelley – USA – With her husband tortured, raped and murdered, by injecting drain cleaner into their blood, an estimated 15 young women.

1986 – Catherine Birnie – Australia – with her husband, David, she murdered 4 women; their fifth escaped, leading to the criminals’ apprehension.

1986 – Cynthia Coffman– USA – With James Marlow, strangled 4 women victims to death, 2 of whom were brutally sexually assaulted.

1987 – Gwendolyn Gail Graham – USA – Michigan – 5 elderly women; nurse. 

1991 – Ruiz Villeda, Anna Maria & Jimenez Rudolfo Infante – Matamoros, Mex. – 1991

1993 – Karla Homolka–  Canada – murdered 3 young women, including Homolka’s younger sister (with Paul Bernardo)

1994 – Dana Sue Gray – USA – Canyon Lake, California – 4 women plus one survivor; strangled with cord or stabbed.

1994 – Rosemary West – England – with her husband Frederick as her crime partner, she murdered and sexually abused 11 women, including her own daughter and step-daughter.

1996 – Michelle Martin – Belgium – With Marc Dutroux, murdered 6 teenage girls after raping and torturing them. This is the most complicated serial killer case in history, involving a large number of mysterious deaths of witnesses, police and others associated with the case during the course of the investigation as well as political intrigue at the highest levels of the Belgian government.

1998 – “PK”– Europe – murdered 2 women, the 3rd victim survived. All were complete strangers. 

2003 – Duan Zhiqun – China – with partner Ma Yong (male) murdered 20 young women; both sentenced to death.

2006Juana Barraza, “La Mataviejitas” (The Old Lady Killer) – Mexico – murdered at least 29 women, some reports estimate total victims to be up to 49.2007 – H. D. Kempamma – India – arrested in Bangalore on Dec 30, 2007; murdered an estimated 10 women for their jewelry using cyanide.

2009 – Mahin Qadiri– Iran – murdered 5 women; she gave them an anesthetic-laced fruit drink and then strangled them.

2010 – Irina Gaidamachuk– Russia – murdered 17 women aged 61-86 with hammer or axe.

2012 – “Indonesian Cannibal Female Serial Killer”– Indonesia – accused of murdering more than 30 girls, and others

• •

Update:

“PARANOID,” SHE SAID:

On June 22, 2013 a website called Fem It Up! Put out the following false statement in reference to The Unknown History of MISANDRY.
“Here’s a whole website devoted to exposing the history of “misandry” by telling the sordid tales of female serial killers who targeted men, like Vera Renczi and Viktoria Foedi Rieger. Don’t think the irony is lost on me that I am using a paranoid Men’s Rights site to make my case.”
 
[Christina Paschyn, “Jackie the Ripper: Where Are All the Female Serial Killers on TV?” Fem It Up!, Jun 22, 2013]

Apparently the author did not spend much time working on her psychiatric diagnosis of “paranoia,” since she failed to notice that the website is not devoted primarily to female serial killers, but also contains extensive historical sources on chivalry justice, racketeering (Heart Balm Racket, Badger Game, Alimony Racket, Allotment Annies, etc.), Revenge-Motivated Maternal Filicide, the early history of the Men’s Rights Movement (1910s-1920s), and most notably, violence by women against woman, as exemplified in “Female Serial Killers Who Liked to Murder Women” and “The Forgotten Serial Killers” about child care providers who murdered children (of both sexes, mind you).

The history of Female Serial Killers is, nevertheless, an important topic on The Unknown History of MISANDRY, it must be said..

Our research has identified 700 cases, the vast majority of them unknown to experts.

By the way, the majority of victims of female serial killers have been, in the aggregate, women and children.

• •

Violence Against Women by Violent Women: The Third Rail of Feminism

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Throughout history unspeakably cruel crimes have been committed by violent women against women and girls. But the heavily-funded 600+ Women’s Studies departments in United State universities and the multi-billion dollar domestic violence industry seem to want to pretend female victims of violent women do not exist.

The reason for this treatment of female victims of violent women is that detailed case reports of atrociously cruel and gratuitous murders and tortures of women committed women would, if they were given the attention they deserve, would undermine the entire ideology that justifies a biased, misandric, approach to dealing with social problems

Thus, from the perspective of the domestic violence movement, female victims are, in a very real sense treated as second-class victims, whose stories need to be kept under the rug.

• •

• FEMALE VICTIMS EXCLUSIVELY •


• VICTIMS OF BOTH SEXES •

Acid Queens: Women Who Throw Acid (includes victims of both sexes)

Creepiest Female Serial Killer Quotations (includes victims of both sexes)

Creepiest Female Serial Killers (includes victims of both sexes)

Female Serial Killers of 19th Century America (includes victims of both sexes)








• •

Update:

“PARANOID,” SHE SAID:

On June 22, 2013 a website called Fem It Up! Put out the following false statement in reference to The Unknown History of MISANDRY.

“Here’s a whole website devoted to exposing the history of “misandry” by telling the sordid tales of female serial killers who targeted men, like Vera Renczi and Viktoria Foedi Rieger. Don’t think the irony is lost on me that I am using a paranoid Men’s Rights site to make my case.”

[Christina Paschyn, “Jackie the Ripper: Where Are All the Female Serial Killers on TV?” Fem It Up!, Jun 22, 2013]

Apparently the author did not spend much time working on her psychiatric diagnosis of “paranoia,” since she failed to notice that the website is not devoted primarily to female serial killers, but also contains extensive historical sources on chivalry justice, racketeering (Heart Balm Racket, Badger Game, Alimony Racket, Allotment Annies, etc.), Revenge-Motivated Maternal Filicide, the early history of the Men’s Rights Movement (1910s-1920s), and most notably, violence by women against woman, as exemplified in “Female Serial Killers Who Liked to Murder Women” and “The Forgotten Serial Killers” about child care providers who murdered children (of both sexes, mind you).

The history of Female Serial Killers is, nevertheless, an important topic on The Unknown History of MISANDRY, it must be said..

Our research has identified 700 cases, the vast majority of them unknown to experts.

By the way, the majority of victims of female serial killers have been, in the aggregate, women and children.


• •


• •


• •

The Man-Hating Club, Washington D. C., founded by Martha McWhirter - 1904

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FULL TEXT (Article 1 of 2): Mrs. McWhirter, of Washington, it is said, is trying to establish in England a branch of the Man-Hating Club, which in Washington has a community of over one hundred members, with capital of twenty thousand pounds. Mrs. Martha McWhirter was a widow, and she, with three other elderly women friends, left their homes and lived together in a large specially built club. The members are forbidden to see or speak to any man, or to engage in any form of religious worship. The younger members, some of whom are children, have never been permitted to go to an ordinary school, for fear they should learn something about marriage and family life; and they are not allowed to have any pocket-money, for fear they should get into mischief by its means. If Mrs. McWhirter’s own children ever leave the fold, she has threatened to cut them off with the proverbial shilling. All the work is done by members, some of whom are milliners, some dressmakers, one a physician, one a dentist, another a shoemaker; and the work of members includes the growing of vegetables and fruit, and the making of butter, as well as cooking and general housework.

[Untitled, Womanhood Monthly (London, England), Nov. 1904, p. 384]

***

FULL TEXT (Article 2 of 2): That curious community of women in Washington, some middle-aged and some elderly, as a corporate body, has foresworn the male sex forever, is locally known as the Man-Hating Club had three girls in its charge – most unwilling members of the organization they – a few days ago. Today they have only two, the prettiest and most attractive of the trio having been stolen by a young man under circumstances which show conclusively that bolts and bars are as butter when Cupid attacks the jail.

The club occupies a large brick building the size of a small hotel at 1437 Kenesaw Avenue. Nearly all of its members have been married, but, having found the wedded state a failure, they have decided to eliminate the masculine brute from their social equation.

The first rule in the management of this remarkable community requires that the very existence of the male human animal shall be ignored. To the organization he is not never was and never will be. He is a zero. If it had not for him, there would have been no trouble in the Garden of Eden. Was it not he who ate the apple? Well, rather, and everybody knows what followed. He will be prevented from making any mischief in the Kenesaw avenue establishment by the simple expedient of barring him out altogether.

This obviously is all very well for the elderly women who manage the concern. They have had their try at life with a man in it and it did not satisfy them. But the three little girls who from mere tots grew up in the community, held different views. They were adopted into the man-hating community while children and now that they have grown to womanhood they have learned to regard the destiny of spinsterhood as foreign to their ideals. One of them, Miss Maud Muller adopted into the community when the club dwelt in Waco, Tex., was successful in averting the fate designed for her and it is she who is the heroine of the adventure here related. The other two girls about the same age – all are in their early twenties – are Susie Carter and Minnie Jones.

Miss Muller, whose name suggests romance, met a young Lochinver who rode not on a prancing charger, but in a cab. Nevertheless, her adventure contained as much of the spirit of the gay old times when knighthood was in flower and castles were beleaguered for the sake of securing exclusive rights in maiden’s smiles as those romantic days themselves could furnish.

It is an old story that love will find a way no matter how difficult the situation. It was so in this instance and the hero of the romance in real life was a handsome young man employed ii the office of the Coast and Geodetic Survey. His name was Upperman and on Sundays he sang in the choir at the Liberal Church which has its headquarters at Concordia Hall. The church is of so very liberal a character, discarding most of more usual religious forms, that Miss Muller was permitted to go there on several occasions under watchful escort despite the fact that one of rules of the man-hating club prohibits its members from engaging in the ordinary forms of Christian worship. Miss Muller heard Mr. Upperman’s voice in the choir and on more than one occasion she saw him pass the plate for contributions. He did it very gracefully it occurred to them both that they would like to meet and through the kindly though surreptitious help of lady who shall be nameless, the thing was accomplished. They met again and finally they made a rendezvous at an hour when most of the old women of the community were sure to be taking a post-prandial snooze. It was to be at the Zoo.



~ An Elephant as Chaperon. ~

There is no safer confidant than an elephant. At the Washington Zoo there is only one pachyderm of this species, but he is very large and proportionately sympathetic – possessed in short of the qualities most essential for a chaperon. On this occasion he did his duty fully. He munched an occasional mouthful of hay, and listened attentively to the conversation of the young lovers who were seated clout by on a bench. It is not permitted to ask what they said to each other. Suffice it to explain that young Mr. Upperman took occasion to express his anxiety that the maiden should become Mrs. Upperman and that she consented. In a word they became engaged.

Now, it is one thing to become engaged, but when a girl is guarded by a dozen dragon, her rescue therefrom is a necessary preliminary problem. In Miss Muller’s case it was not one dragon but about thirty that had to be tackled. Their heads had to be cut off one after another, figuratively speaking, before the damsel could be carried away. If anybody thinks that the difficulties were trifling, he is not acquainted with the Man-Hating Club. Besides, Miss Muller had her own ideas about the proprieties, and insisted that they should be duly regarded.
 

~ Plan of Escape Adopted. ~

There were two or three more meetings, more or less casual, before a definite plan was finally adopted. Once decided upon it was simple enough. A day and an hour were appointed for the escape, and Mr. Upperman was on hand with a two-horse cab and an express wagon. The latter vehicle was to carry Miss Muller’s trunk. Inspired by a lover’s eagerness, Mr. Upperman was twenty minutes too early, so obliged to wait around the corner for that interminable length of time. The cabman did not seem to mind, and the unromantic expressman took advantage of the opportunity to go to sleep.

Mr. Upperman stayed awake – very much so in fact. Two minutes of the appointed hour wore still wanting when he drove up to the door of the large building occupied by the Woman’s Commonwealth, at 1437 Kenesaw Avenue. His heart went pitapat. Suppose that his lady love should be forcibly restrained! Might not the man-haters, scenting the proposed elopement, place a physical and forcible barrier in the way? Would he be driven, perhaps, to the last and unpoetic resort of habeas corpus proceedings for securing possession of the person of his affianced bride?

So nervous did he become under the influence of these imaginings, that he jumped out of the cab and was advancing up the asphalt path toward the sacred dwelling of the man-excluding community when he saw the object of his affections gesticulating earnestly at a window and bidding him go back Obediently he went back and resumed his face in the carriage. A week passed –  it was only ten minutes, but it seemed like a week – and then something happened. Out of the front door of the house came Maud, glorified. She was attired as he had never seen her, for the community had never allowed her to wear fashionable garments or even to “do” her hair in a becoming way. But on this occasion, having thrown off the authority to which she had since child hood submitted, she had for the first time in her life dressed herself as she would wish to be dressed. She wore a blue skirt a silk shirt waist, a straw hat with a light blue veil – and well, that is all the young lover could take in at a glance. She got into the cab and her trunk being brought out of the house presently by the express-man, they drove away.
 

~ Cinderella’s Leave-Taking ~

The delay, as was afterwards explained, had been due to certain conscientious scruples on the girl’s part. The community had not been kind to her. It had tried to stifle and destroy her life and had made of her a sort of Cinderella, compelling her, without remuneration, to do every sort of disagreeable work. Even affection had been withheld from her, as a part of the governing system. Nevertheless, the place had been her home, and at the last moment she made up her mind that she would not leave it secretly, or be afraid to claim the freedom to which she was entitled. So, when from the window she had waved her lover back, she went down, probably, into the general parlor where Miss Holtzclaw, the governing manager, and the elders of the organization were assembled in grim conversation over their knitting, and told them that she was going away –  that she was going to be married.

They had very little to say in reply. Though she had lived with them and worked for them for fifteen years, not one of them spoke a good-by, or came to the door to see her off, and, when she remarked that she hoped to come and see them now and then they told her that, if she went, she must never return. Then they went back to their knitting.

The cab was driven directly to the house of the Rev. Dr. Alexander Kent, pastor of the Liberal Church (where the young couple first met), and there the maiden was soon made a wife; standing with the man of her choice in a big bay window, which had been filled with flowers for the occasion.
 

~ An Eager Aide de Camp ~

The flowers were a surprise, and so was the wedding breakfast afterward, which the clergyman’s daughter, Miss Fay (delighted with the romance in which she had an opportunity to assist) had prepared. It was a glorious send-off altogether, and the blithesome Miss Fay managed at the last moment to pour a whole handful of rice down the neck of the groom, who when he went out of the house, found the carriage festooned with white streamers, and an old shoe tied fast behind. But it was not an occasion when trifles of this sort could be deemed worthy of attention, and the cab drove off to the railroad station at breakneck speed, arriving just in time to catch the train for Atlantic City, where the young people were to make it their business to compress a whole honeymoon into a fortnight of vacation granted by Government dispensation.

The future home of Mrs. Upperman is No. 315 Street northwest, at a house which her husband possessed together with a modest little fortune outside of his pay from the Coast Survey.

In the meanwhile the Man-Hating club still retains two girl captives, Minnie Jones and Susie Carter, both very pretty and yet unstolen. Restrictions to which they are subjected, but which were finally abrogated by the young Lochinvar in Miss Mutter’s case are as follows:



~ Rules of the Club~

They are forbidden to see or speak to any man.

They are not allowed to engage in any form of religious worship. Absence of definite religious tenets is one of the principles on which the community is founded.

They have never been permitted to go to school, let learn something about marriage and family life.

They are allowed to have a cent to spend because money might get them into mischief.

It is true that they are allowed to go out of the community house on occasions, and even to visit the shops down town, but only under escort and vigilant guardianship by the older women.

Several months ago head and organizer of the Man-Hating Club died. Her name was Mrs. Martha McWhirter, and one of the remarkable things about her was that she had had twelve children of her own before she decided to abjure the male sex and to set up a man-hating and man-excluding community. Having become at length convinced that the masculine creature was unnecessary in the scheme of creation, she persuaded several of her women friends of the fact, and they left husbands in a body, so to speak, forming an organization with Mrs. McWhirter at their head. They managed to get together enough money to start a hotel in their home town of Belton, Tex., and subsequently they set up and ran another hostelry in Waco.

~ Supernatural Revelations~

Exceptional advantages were enjoyed from the start by the community, owing to the circumstances that its doings were directed by supernatural revelations communicated through Mrs. McWhirter. It is also probable that the head of the concern was an excellent business woman. At all events, the enterprise prospered and the community, when it moved to Washington, possessed about $100,000 in money and property. The move, by the way, was made in obedience to a fresh revelation reported by Mrs. McWhirter.

All of the property of the community including money, is held in common – which means that it belongs to the head of the organization, who manages it as she sees fit, for the common benefit. When Mrs. McWhirter died she left everything to her chief lieutenant Miss Holtzclaw with the exception of $5 apiece for each of her grandchildren.

The property on Kenesaw Avenue is by the community. All of work is done by the members, including the raising of garden truck for the table and the making of butter from cream furnished by three or four cows. Most of the cooking is done by the three young women, who, demanding no wages, are cheap at the price. Some are milliners and others dressmakers. One is a dentist, another a shoemaker and yet another a physician. Thus the man-excluding club is to a great extent, self-sustaining. With its $100,000 capital it is rich. The appointment of Miss Holtzclaw as manager was directed by teat Mrs. McWhirter’s last revelation, and her authority in all things is absolute.

[“Cupid Steals Girl From Ranks Of The Man-Hating Club - Miss Maud Muller an Unwilling Member Exchanges Bonds of Washington’s Unique Organization for Those of Matrimony.” Washington Times (D.C.), Sep. 18, 1904, part 3 (magazine section), p. 1]

***


For more cases of misandric fixation see: What Is Misandric Fixation?

***

MEN ON STRIKE – Early Men’s Rights Organization: Tibet 1928

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You will be surprised to learn that, despite the best efforts of the gender censors, that now, for the first time in nearly a century, it is revealed that Gender Utopia has been achieved in reality. Read on, study the story of “gender” in remote Tibet, and learn how western society will look in 10-20 years.

***

Men on Strike” is the title of the 2013 book by Dr. Helen Smith (“Dr. Helen”) that explains why men are, in ever-increasing numbers, refusing to submit to the out-of-control “gender” system that continues to strip the male of fundamental rights and which reduces so many men to a lifetime of slavery.

Dr. Helen uses the phase “men on strike” as a metaphor for what is going on now, yet there have been instances in history where men have literally gone on strike, and called it a “strike,” and did it for the very same reasons that motivate today’s strikers. Here is one such instance, which took place in 1928 in Tibet.

It is recommended that another post be read in conjunction with this one. “‘A Dictatorship of the Eternal Woman Has Been Declared’: The Soviet Alimony Racket – 1927,”  describes a situation, similar in some respects, as regards to de facto system of polyandry, but arrived to on a different path, namely Communism.

***

FULL TEXT (Article 1 of 4): That persistent underground rumbling you’ve been hearing lately is undoubtedly caused by the turning of millions of worms down on the underside of the world, the worms in this case being the patient long suffering husbands of the haughty ladies of Tibet.

According to news that has seeped out through the tall ring of Tibetan mountains, the gentlemen of the yak country have organized a men’s rights campaign that recently culminated in a parade of striking husbands. Accompanied by charm boxes, prayer wheels and fluttering pennants that read “Down With Tyrannical Women!” numbers of married men paraded the streets of Lhasa, demanding more respect for their sex and a kind word now and then from the head of the house.

At the risk of becoming what Tibet considers unmasculine, some of the brave ones have even gone so far as to draw up a set of demands. They ask, among other things, for financial independence, a single standard of morality, only one husband to a wife, the right of widowers to remarry and equal; privileges of divorce.



“Too long have we suffered in silence, my fellow Tibetans!” cries out, in effect this mold manifestant “We, able bodied men seven feet tall, natural protectors of the so-called gentler sex, are made their slaves. We have to earn our own keep as well as supply our wives with luxuries, and they don’t even provide enough children to go around. It has got so than an ambitious woman expects a flock of husbands, just like so many sheep or yaks. Must such things go on forever? Or shall we not rather assert our manhood, even at the risk of appearing unmanlike, and protest against this irksome feminine control?”

Apparently being seven feet tall is not much of a help to the harried husbands of Tibet. For countless centuries the little women of Lhasa and the way stations have kept the masculine world firmly fixed under their yellow thumbs. The trouble is that husbands so often come in wholesale lots, few indeed being the women who haven’t more than one husband. four is said to be a highly popular number, which is fortunate if the wife happens to be find of the Tibetan equivalent of “Sweet Adeline,” sung as a quartet.


The institution of plural husbands and the feminism seem to be due in a considerable manner to a considerable shortage of women. Percival Landon, who accompanied Younghusband’s expedition, reports that practically all commerce of the country is in the hands of the women, the men serving chiefly as errand runners, bundle carriers and bits of local color. No man is allowed to sell any of the family possessions without his wife’s permission, though, of course, no such restrictions apply to her.

Nor do the women confine their ruling to the little troop of Boy Scouts given to them by holy matrimony. Nu Kuo, a state of eastern Tibet, has always had a woman ruler, and in many of the other provinces the wife of the prince in charge is the real mainspring of the works.

One of the most powerful of the Tibetan divinities is a dark blue with three eyes who rides a mule, has live snakes for veins and drinks her cocktails out of a skull. Some 30 years ago the functionaries of Tibet announced that the current incarnation of the dreadful lady was none other than Queen Victoria. After her death they prophesied that the revered ruler would have the happiness of being reborn a Tibetan. If so, the change in home life must be rather starling to the dear English queen.

Of course, no high spirited Tibetan girl would marry a whole group if she disapproved of any of the members. If one of the younger brothers happens to lack charm, he is black balled out of the wedding party. This, in a young man, is as severe a calamity as the blizzard of 1888, and his usual reaction is is to save himself from social ostracism by becoming a monk.

There is a chance, in southern Tibet, at least, that he can make a career of  a sort by signing on as a magpa. In this section of the country ladies bored with their current group of husbands sometimes add to the ménage an unhappy younger brother who has been vetoed by someone else.

The magpa’s importance is close to the absolute zero of physics. He can leave his wife only in case she possibly mistreats him, but she, on the other hand, can give him the cutting mountain air whenever such a procedure strikes her fancy.

Polyandry is not universal in Tibet. Up near the high brim of China it is comparatively rare, and even in the midst of the many husband belt there are occasional only sons whose interest in their wives is of the shareholders type.
 

Yet the life of these monopolists is hardly cheery enough to justify green looks of envy among the married men of America. It is the duty of the Tibetan husband, whether singular or plural, to make all the clothes for the family, including the wife. Any man who has ever imagined being a Louise-boulanger [a famous fashion designer] in his own house can picture the anguish of the fitting hour and the horrid strain of the day when the little woman goes out to compare her costume with those made by the husbands across the valley.

But, as the entomologists say, it’s a long worm that has no turning. Under the leadership of one Amouki, who seems to be the Susan B. Anthony of the movement, the husbands of Tibet have risen to demand an improvement in their status.

[“Husbands of Thibet Demand Equal Rights – In Mysterious Land Where Every Wife Has a Harem, Downtrodden Male Sex Organizes an Anti-feminine Movement,” The Sunday Magazine of the Milwaukee Journal (Wi.), May 20, 1928, p. 5]

***


FULL TEXT (Article 2 of 4):

“Fathers and brothers:

“For many years we have been subjected to feminine domination. They look upon us as cattle and horses. Their impositions are so many that it is impossible to mention them all, but here are some:

“1. A wife is provided with many husbands. If they do not please her she abandons them. Husbands dare not resist.

~ CALL THEMSELVES SLAVES. ~

“2. under feminine control we work day and night in a different section of the country. We gain money by the sweat of our brow, of which we may keep nothing, being compelled to turn over all to the woman who rules us.

If we have not lucrative employment we are evicted and abandoned. What slaves we are!

“3. women are free to remarry when any of their husbands die, but we are obliged to remain widowers if our wife dies. Even if his fiancée dies before marriage

~ RESOLUTIONS IN TIBET. ~

No, this is not taken from some crazy quilt, futuristic farce, nor does it describe a man-hating woman’s dream of heaven. It is surely part of the resolutions offered secretly by striking husbands of Tibet, to be exact, of the province of Ezetchouan.

This is only one of  the many communities in Asia where polyandry is the existing system, where every woman has at least three husbands olus one bronxe image of a Buddist priest.

All husbands except of the favorite work for the wife, who is absolute despot over the seven-foot males.. they are her playthings. If she likes them , she keeps them; if not she casts them aside. And a husband so discarded is an outcast from society.

~ DECIDED TO REBEL. ~

Well, the downtrodden husbands of that one particular province decided to rebel, formed a union and marched five hundred strong on the holy city of Lhassa, appealing for “Men’s Rights.” Banners calling for “Financial Independence for Men” and demanding that “One Husband Should Suffice For Any One Woman” were in evidence.

Doesn’t it remind you of the not-so remote effects of our own downtrodden women? Yet today it is said that the only country in the world where women enjoy greater privileges than in America is in polygamous Tibet!

[Jean Newton, “What Slaves We Are, Cry Husbands – Men Of Ezetchouan, Tibet, Where Polyandry Exists, Rebel and Adopt Resolutions. – Situation Is Like Reversal Of Recent Conditions In America, Suggests Writer.” The Sunday Sun (Baltimore, Md.), May 13, 1928, Sec. 2, p. 13]

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NOTE: Here’s a little background information on the Tibetan system of polyandry which precipitated the revolt of the males in 1928.

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FULL TEXT (Article 3 of 4): A little northeast of Lhassa, among the mountains that cover that part of the great plateau of Tibet, the explorer Bonvalot found a large population. It is in these valleys that some of the rivers of India have their headquarters. This region, says the New York Sun, is peculiar as the part of Tibet where polyandry is the custom, and this feature of social life has given Tibet some notoriety, because there are very few parts of the world in which polyandry is practised. Bonvalot thus describes the custom as it exists in Tibet.

A family has a daughter. A young man wishes to enter the family, to live under its roof, and become the husband of the daughter. He consults with the parents, and if they arrive at an agreement in regard to the amount of property he is to turn over to them, he takes up his abode in the hut and becomes the husband of the daughter. It may be that there are other young men desirous of partaking of the same good fortune. They are not at all deterred by the fact that the girl is already provided with a husband. They present themselves at the hut, make offers of certain property, and, unless the first husband has paid what is regarded in Tibet as a very large sum in order to secure the young woman as his exclusive possession, she becomes likewise the wife of these other claimants for her hand, and the whole family live together in the same hut and in the utmost harmony.

It rarely happens that a young man thinks so much of the girl he weds in this peculiar fashion as to be jealous of others who also desire to be her husband. Now and then, however, such a case arises, and then there is likely to be bloodshed. He is a happy young man who is wealthy enough to become the sole lord and master of his wife. It is a question entirely of money. If the young Tibetan is rich enough he buys a wife and remains the only master of the household. Sometimes, also, the husband acquires sufficient property to buy out the interest? of the other husbands and then they retire from the field. They are generally content if they receive back a little more money than they paid for their interest in the young woman. The children are always regarded as belonging to the woman, and the fathers lay no claims upon them. Polyandry is not established by law, but it is a custom which probably arose at some time when the female population was less numerous than the male, and it has been continued largely on account of the poverty of the people. Polygamy is practiced as well as polyandry.

While the poorest men have only a fractional interest in one wife, the rich men of the community have several wives. The chiefs have as many as they can buy. Financial considerations, therefore, have all to do with questions of matrimony.

[“Polyandry In Tibet. - A Country "Where Women Have Several Husbands Apiece. -  Financial Considerations Rule All Matrimonial Questions in the Land of the Lama, But Jealousy It Not Popular.” Syndicated, The Piqua Daily Call (Oh.), Apr. 6, 1892, p. 4] 
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FULL TEXT (Article 4 of 4): Polyandry still flourishes in Central Asia where the inconveniences of a matriarchy are solved by never having more than one husband home at a time. After spending five years in the desert and mountain wildernesses of Northern Tibet and Chinese Turkestan, Professor Nicholas Roerich, head of the Roerich American expedition, declared today that the women of Central Asia were the greatest spiritual force of that remote, wild section of the globe.

Three or four husbands are the rule in Northern Tibet. Polyandry is most common among the lower classes. The high cast Tibetans, guided by their lamas, or priests, are more inclined towards monogamy.

Among the strange lore which Protestor Roerich brought back with him from his travels is an account of a religion called Shambhala. This it strangely parallel with some of our own scientific discoveries of recent date. The Shambhala is an evolutionary theory which promises to show humanity how to master psychic energy, cosmic energy end through the these – the mystery of fire energy.

“The high culture of these people is remarkable. The lamas are really teachers, not monks. They try to keep this Sbambhala religion to themselves. It was manifested about 2,000 years ago and only few know of it or are able to understand it.

“The women look like the Red Indian. They are taught that it is immodest to attract the attention of a man. For this reason they paint their cheeks with a black powder mixed with blood. This makes them ugly – and seems to suit their purpose admirably. They pick their own husbands, thus the matter of  selectivity is no problem with them.”

Professor Roerich, accompanied by his wife and son, George Roerich, one of the foremost Orientalists, set out frost Sikhim in India, crossed over to the Soja La Pass to Little Tibet, thence to the great Karkorum Passes into Chinese Turkestan. From there they journeyed over the Altis Mountains to Mongolia, the Gobi Desert, into Tibet. They suffered innumerable hardships.

En route, Professor Roerich paused to paint pictures of the impenetrable regions around Altis and the Himilaya Mountains. He is a famous artist, philosopher and scientist for whom the Roerich Museum was founded here in 1923.

 
[“Polyandry Still Practised in Asia by Tibetans of tower and Middle Classes - Women Make Themselves Ugly, at It Is a Sin to Attract Men,” syndicated, The Dubois Courier (Pa.), Jun. 26, 1929, p. 8]

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From Wikipediaarticle “Polyandry in Tibet”: Studies have attempted to explain the existence of polyandry in Tibet. One reason put forward in traditional literature is that: By not allowing land to be split between brothers, Tibetan families retained farms sufficiently large to continue supporting their family. A compelling socio-biological justification for polyandry is that it makes good genetic sense for brothers to raise one another's children since a brother possesses the next closest gene pool to their own. Another reason for polyandry is that the mountainous terrain makes some of the farm land difficult to farm, requiring more physical strength. Women take multiple husbands because they are strong and able to help tend the land.

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The “Early Men’s Rights Activism” post gives links to other articles on 1910s-1930s men’s rights activism in several countries. ◄•◄

Edith Ransom & the Heart Balm Racket - 1922

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FULL TEXT: Miss Edith L. Ransom, a twenty-three-year-old Richmond, Va., beauty filed papers in a suit in Supreme Court for alleged breach of promise against John B. Woodward, an executive and part owner of a Chicago newspaper. He is a widower, about sixty years old, and while in New York lives at the Dearborn Apartments in West 55th Street, Miss Ransom lives nearby in the Hotel. No. 147 West 55th Street.

In her complaint filed by her counsel, Thomas J. Stapleton of No 305 Broadway, Miss Ransom alleges that Woodward asked her to be his wife while they were a dinner in the Hotel Majestic, on June 20, 1920, and that he renewed this promise in October of the same year while the were at a sanitarium in Summit, N. J. Now, she avers, that recently he withdrew his promises to marry and $100,000 damages.

Woodward was served with a summons in the suit in his offices in the Times Building on Wednesday

In a letter to her lawyer, included in the complaint, Miss Ransom writes:

“After several quarrels Mr. Woodward told me that he did not intend to marry me as he had discovered that I had a very jealous nature, and that I got on his nerves at times when I became hysterical after his quarreling with me.

“Due to the disappointment and heartache and worry over the compromising position in which I have been placed I fell seriously ill last summer in the Edgewater Beach Hotel and can secure proof from people in Chicago that Mr. Woodward introduced me to his friends and paid all my expenses while in Chicago at his fiancee.”

Among various letters submitted by tin plaintiff in her complaint is on the letterhead of a Chicago newspaper, saying in part:

“Dear Edith: You have great versatility in letter writing. In almost every letter you write you show it. Sunday you pictured me as a your big wonderful man. Tuesday I was a shrimp, not it to continue as your devoted pal, that on my return to New York  I was not to speak to you Wednesday I was to prepare for the Wedding March and on Thursday I was a cold-hearted villain who had forsaken his Princess and was rushing widows and vamps. Your letters are always interesting and I enjoy them immensely.”

Affidavits are submitted to Mrs. Margaret Ott, superintendent, and nurse, at the Esther [?] Erbach Dr. Reinie’s sanitarium, Summitt, N. J., declaring that Woodward and Miss Ransom spent ten days in adjoining rooms of the sanitarium and that she held Miss Ransom out as his fiancée and it was understood they were to be married next December.”

Miss Ransom is an orphan, her parents having died when she was an infant. She was reared in the .Masonic Home in Richmond, Va. Dining the war she was secretary toGeorge Creel, Director of the Bureau of Public Information. It was while she was Mr. Creel’s secretary that she first met Mr. Woodward.

[“‘About 60’ Asks 23-Year Beauty To Be His Bride; And So Miss Edith L. Ransom Sues John B. Woodward for $100,000 for Heart Balm.” The evening world (N.Y.), Aug. 4, 1922, p. 3]

The Badger Game, Trans-Atlantic Style - 1922

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Badger game– Badger game is slang for a deception whereby a woman lures a male victim into a compromising position whereupon they are caught by her accomplice who pretends to be the husband. The couple then blackmail or demand money from the victim.[The Probert Encyclopedia]

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FULL TEXT: London – blackmail has ousted card-sharping from its place at the top of the list of indoor sports arranged by the versatile crooks on the great trans-Atlantic liners for their moneyed victims.

Still hardy despite its old age, the “badger gamer” is the most popular and most profitable.

“We know the ‘badger game’ is being worked on every great liner,” said a steamship official. “Often it is worked half a dozen times a trip on one ship. But no passenger has ever complained. We know most of the card-sharpers. We know many of the blackmailers but we have no proof as to their activities aboard ship.”

“Many women, easily recognized as too smartly gowned, a little too well-complexioned at night and a little too frequent in their journeys across the Atlantic – are known to us. Their ‘husbands’ – most of them carry them, though a few weeks along simple holdup liones – are of their own type, expensively dressed and superficially polished but always lacking the something that would make them gentlemen.

~ She Works Alone ~

The women who work alone permit themselves to be made love to by ardent young men – or men who feel young, anyway – with too much money, and after they have succumbed to their lovers’ persuasion, merely threaten to call for help or to sue for breach of promise.

It is the couples who work the badger game, however, who have the best of it. They usually pick a man to whom exposure would be serious, preferably a rich business man, with a family. The victim meets the wife; the husband is introduced and faithfully plays the role of colorless uninteresting spouse.

The wife complains that he does not treat her well; she detests him. If the victim falls – and he usually gallops to it – he is seen about with the wife frequently. She is always afraid her husband will suspect something. The victim believes himself a Lothario and probably starts wearing flowers in his buttonhole.

~ Then, One Night ~

Then, one night, he sweeps the wife off her feet. The husband finds them together. The horrified recoil towards the door; the look of pained amazement; the outraged husband’s just anger; the clenched hands reaching out for the housewrecker’s throat; the tearful, terrified wife; the penitent “mug,” pop-eyed with fright and thoughts of home and Alice and the three children, the wife’s plea for forgiveness; the husband’s frenzied “No! not for $10,000!” The “mug’s” sudden thought: “Twenty thousand dollars maybe?”

So far there has not been a case in which the wronged husband has not consented to try to plaster his wounds with a few thousand-dollar bills.

[“’Badger Game’ Again Popular,” Journal  (Milwaukee, W.), Sep. 11, 1922, p. 1]

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